1.6.11

Untouched

To celebrate the launch of Viva London (model agency), Scott Trindle has created a series of portraits showing the agency's stars stripped bare-no make-up and no retouching. The portraits are shown as part of an exhibition, called Untouched, which opened on 26th May at London's Rochelle School of Art.

I don't know about anyone else, but all I see here for the most part are portraits of extremely frail, emaciated girls who lack any of the charisma or status of 'fresh faces' and 'supermodels', and it really makes me question what the modelling world has come to. Yes, trends change and androgyny is currently a hot topic, perhaps explaining to some extent the prevalence of skinny, bony models with boyish figures. But what kind of a message does this send out to society and to the hundreds of girls willing to be liked these models, their 'idols'? This has been a much discussed topic and yet, despite the controversy, model agencies continue to only admit girls taller than 5'9" and certainly less than the healthy weight for a girl of this size (bearing in mind that many of these girls are still in their teens and are still growing). And it's not just a question of weight-these pictures lack personality as each girl blends into the next. I find myself instinctively comparing them to the supermodels of the 90s which were, and still are for me, the real 'supers'. They had personality, flair, a distinctive look and perhaps, more importantly, real and healthy figures. Just look at these pictures of the old school supermodels with no make-up on and I think that the difference becomes clear...What a shame that times have changed so drastically in a decade or so!